Raising a Mets Fan

There are many spots people congregate to take pictures of either themselves or the group: the Shea Bridge, down by the railing of their section using the field as a backdrop, or behind center field with Mr. Met.

Each of these spots has an issue. You wait in line for Mr. Met. There’s a ton of traffic on the Shea Bridge. You have to fight other people and the ushers to get a picture towards the railing of the section.

This pretty much means if you want to take a picture inside Citi Field, you’re dealing with a hassle. That is unless you are taking your picture with the M&Ms:

As you may be able to tell, this is right before the Shea Bridge, and even with the amount of foot traffic in the area, this side section is largely undisturbed.

This allows you to set up a fun picture without waiting or much of a hassle. That is unless this now catches on . . . .

The other night, my infant son woke up early while I was doing work on the computer. Since I couldn’t put him back down, I offered to let him share his thoughts on the Mets. This is what he had to say about the team:

Last night was one of those nights. You were forever going to tell people where you were. For me, I was sitting on my couch with a cranky baby and four year old. Why were they so cranky?

Well, because I’m me, an avid sports fan and idiot, I woke them up to watch the final few minutes of the Virginia-UMBC game. History was being made, and I wanted them to see something that never happened before – a 16 beating a 1. The final score was as startling as the upset itself with UMBC winning 74-54.

As an aside, Ralph Sampson and his UVA teammates can rest assured they are no longer the Cavalier team who is mentioned as the biggest upset of all time in college basketball. No, that 1982 loss by number one ranked Viriginia to Division III Chaminade will fall by the wayside – even if that was the much bigger upset.

But I digress.

Last night was one of those great moments in sports history, and you didn’t want to miss it. I know I didn’t want my boys to miss it.

It’s not too dissimilar when I woke up my oldest to watch the end of Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. What’s funny about that game was instead of tuning in for the ninth, he was tuned into all the hysteria which included a miracle game tying three run homer by Rajai Davis off Aroldis Chapman, a rain delay, and Ben Zobrist‘s game and World Series RBI double.

For the first time in 108 years, the Cubs won the World Series. My son was watching it much like he was last night when a 16 seed beat a 1 seed for the first time in 136 tries (34 years).

It once again shows that the impossible can happen in sports. As a proud parent, it’s just proof positive that everything has been amazing since my son was born.

Speaking of amazing, the one thing he hasn’t seen is the Mets win the World Series.

Who knows? With Mickey Callawayat the helm, maybe things will be different. Maybe Michael Confortobeing ahead of schedule is a good thing instead of the typical Mets unnecessarily pushing an injured player to play (see Beltran, Carlos).

Maybe, just maybe that’ll be the case instead of this being the typical Mets. After all, the Cubs have won the World Series and a 16 has beat a 1.

Recent reports indicate McDonalds is making efforts to make their Happy Meals healthier by eliminating both cheeseburgers and chocolate milk as menu options. In reaching this decision, McDonalds said it will “reinforce responsible marketing to children.” (CNN Money).

In a ridiculous move, the American Heart Association championed the move and encouraged other fast food restaurants to follow McDonalds lead.

Upon reading all of this, my first reaction was, “Do they all realize this is McDonalds we are talking about?”

My next reaction was all of this hullabaloo over a piece of cheese?

If you go to McDonalds’ Nutritional Page, you will see the slice of cheese adds 50 calories and three grams of fat. Conversely, it also reduces the amount of Vitamin A and calcium in the meal.

Now, the cheeseburger does have 100 more calories than the McNuggets but just one fewer gram of fat. By the way, McNuggets are an absolute zero nutritionally as they have no Vitamin A or calcium and just two grams a piece of Vitamin C and iron. Those McNuggets may not be made of pink slime, but given their lack of anything of nutritional value, it is hard to imagine they are made out of anything resembling chicken.

By the way, that is the nutritional information before you consider using a sugar laced dipping sauce. Seeing the combination of the two, it makes you question what the hysteria is over a slice of cheese.

The disparity between the chocolate milk and the juice box leads to the same shrug as to why you are making an issue over fewer calories and nutrients.

More to the point, this is a Happy Meal. No parent is under any delusions this is remotely healthy. That is the case even with the apple slices that never brown or the yogurt which is really nothing more than creamed sugar with a slightly sour taste to it. Seriously, have you ever seen an apple not brown? Why would anything think it’s healthy?

Overall, McDonalds is supposed to be nothing more than an occasional treat and not the basis of a daily diet. We all know this. That includes McDonalds and the American Heart Association who are all grandstanding on a slice of cheese.

It’s idiotic, and it’s a falsehood.

Really, if you are that concerned over a slice of cheese or chocolate milk, you would not be going to McDonalds in the first place.

When your children are newborn, the only way they can truly communicate is crying.

Full diaper? Cry

Hungry? Cry

Want attention? Cry

Bored, upset, angry, happy? Cry, cry, cry cry.

Point is there are many reasons why a baby cries. As parents, there are just so many things you can do to help.

Change the baby. Feed the baby. Give the baby a pacifier. Bounce the baby on your knee. Hold the baby. Rock the baby.

Sometimes it helps. Sometimes it doesn’t.

And when it doesn’t, you find yourself running through the gamut as the baby gets more and more upset. That’s when the cries grow louder and louder and seemingly more and more pained.

To avoid all of that, I have one suggestion. When your baby begins crying or looks to get to that point, quickly put on some music. At a minimum, the hope is that it soothes the baby. Maybe, it will even be exactly what your baby wanted all along.

The easiest way to handle the situation is to have a song ready to go on your phone. Whether it is itunes or You Tube, be ready to quickly turn the song on.

If you are looking for a song to pick, I will say Lou Christie’s Lightnin Strikes worked for both of my sons. Hopefully, it will for you as well:

Hell, I’d love to do that with my Dad as well. However, with the way this team is being operated from a financial and personnel standpoint, it seems like that’s becoming less and less of a possibility.

Sadly, the Wilpons don’t care about my story or other fans stories. They don’t have to because they’re making money anyway. They don’t have to because fans like me keep coming back for more, and even worse, we begin the process of indoctrinating our children at a young age.

So yes, I’m to blame why the Wilpons get away with operating the Mets this way. However, only the Wilpons themselves are to blame for choosing to operate the team this way.

Each and every year, we all set forth New Year’s Resolutions, and they all fail miserably. In fact, according to Business Insider, 80% of resolutions fail by February.

There are a multitude of reasons why, but for the most part, they fail because we all know we are biting off more than we can chew in making these resolutions. It’s difficult to take a bad habit or something wrong and put all that pressure on ourselves and change it overnight.

So instead of making the same resolutions you use each year and watch them fail, we should all look to make an easier resolution. That resolution should be to take a photo of your children each and every day.

Look, we are always on our phones and those phones have cameras on them. Why not take an opportunity and just take a picture of your child?

On a personal front, I have taken at least one photo of my son everyday since he was born. He’s now four. As Christmas comes along, I go on Snapfish, and I create a photo calendar of just pictures of him. Each and every day is literally a snapshot of my son from that particular day.

It’s not all set pictures. I wait for moments. Working hard trying to write – Take a picture. Reading a book – Take a picture. Soccer or ice skating – Take a picture. Cute expression watching TV or sleeping – Take a picture.

Point is there is something our kids do each and every day that is more than worthy of capturing for posterity’s sake.

Personally, I get the joy of scrolling through a year’s worth of pictures. I get to see how he’s grown, and how much he has changed over the past year. With that, I’m able to create a gift for my family that everyone loves.

If you’re reading this, you’re likely doing it from your phone. If so, just take a quick picture of your kid. Make it a habit. Save the photos. Load it to Snapfish. Enjoy it forever.

In the end, you’ll have a New Year’s Resolution well worth keeping, and one that is fairly easy to keep.